INTRODUCTION
Foreword Carol Coletta Vice President, Community and National Initiatives, The Knight Foundation
It’s hard to imagine how you build a city today from the top down. The time has passed when a few influential people could gather in a room to decide what a city will be. Instead, a city’s future is determined by hundreds of actions taken daily by thousands of people based on what they believe about a city’s future and their role in it. But if our future is to be crowdsourced, we have to ask, “Where is the crowd?” Anyone who has ever staged a town hall meeting knows how difficult it is to encourage people out of their homes and away from their routines to participate in a public discussion. Civic engagement, it turns out, is very hard to achieve, particularly using traditional methods. That’s why the work documented here is so exciting. It animates places, people and civic purpose in a way that is completely energising. And it recognises that inviting people to make and do today, as well as building for a more optimistic tomorrow, is the best way to do it. I believe this is the magic of The Open Works project. People participated because of its appeal. And with their participation, they are making a new future for themselves and their community. Carol Coletta
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